In the Aftermath
by Wandering Dawn
Summary: As Peeta's incidents get worse Heather decides she can no longer cope with the aftermath of her mother's depression, her father's guilt and her brother's fear. On her 19th birthday she moves to District 4 under the watchful eye of an old friend thinking things can only get better. She soon realises the consequences affect her whether she is in 12 or not.


**AN: New story, YEY! :D I'm kinda looking forward to writing this one so I hope you like it as much as I do! **

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It's well past midnight when I knock on their door, and I can't help but feel slightly guilty at the late hour but the need for comfort over rides my current guilt as I hold my sobbing little brother tightly to me. You'd think after eighteen years I would be used to this by now, but it never gets any easier watching your father lash out at his family, hitting my mother, calling her a capitol mutant whore. More tears overflow as I replay the scene in my head, each time seemingly worse than the last. I knock again on the door impatiently and watch as a light comes on up the stairs. When the door opens I'm met with a half naked, very dishevelled looking Finn Odair. He seems groggy and grumpy for a split second before he takes in the state of my eyes and Phoenix's sobbing.

"It happened again?" he asked, before ushering us into the house. I nodded slowly, balancing Nix on one arm and hastily wiping my eyes with my free hand. Finn reaches over and takes Nix from my arms before leading me to the couch. "We have to be quiet because mum is still asleep," Finn whispers quietly. I nodded, not expecting anything less of the late hour. I watch as he paces back and forth in front of me, cradling Nix until he has fallen asleep. When he has he lays him at the opposite end of the couch, pulling a blanket over him before turning to me. He opens up his arms and I immediately fall into them, tears once again spilling over my eye lids at such a fast pace I am surprised that I haven't started to flood the place yet. "What happened?" he asks softly, stroking my hair and cradling my body against his, doing his best to in still comfort into me.

Once again the scene replayed itself in my thoughts. The way dad cut his hand whilst he was slicing up some late night munchies. How he started shaking violently before looking at mum with such a burning hatred I had never seen before. How he charged at her, holding nothing back whilst yelling and screaming about mutts and capitol whores before trying to choke her. How mum and screamed at me to take Nix out of the house and to get Haymitch. How I had jumped on the first train to four straight after Haymitch ran into our house. "I just couldn't deal with it this time. He has never ever been that bad. Not since I can remember. He used to shake and grip the back of the chair, sometimes he would shout about mutts, but I've never seen him actually attack mum before. I'm so sorry that I came here, Finn. I know it's late and it was stupid, but I couldn't stay there. I couldn't leave Nix there." I sobbed and hiccupped quietly after I had finished, still cradled n Finn's arms.

"Shh. It's okay. You're here now and you're safe. I'm sure your dad has got it back under control and I'm sure your mum is fine. I bet they're both worried sick about you though. You should call them and tell them you're both okay." I shake my head, erupting into a fresh wave of tears as I thought about talking to my parents right now. Almost as if they knew we were talking about them the house phone rang loud and shrilly, and there was only one person who would be calling at this time. Finn sighed, setting me back down on the sofa and picking the phone up. "Hello?... Yeah they're here and they're safe. I will get them to ring you in the morning, I promise... Yeah, I'll see you soon Mrs Mellark." After putting the phone back down he walked back over to me and pulled me back up before sitting down himself and putting me on his lap. Sighing he wrapped his arms around me and cradled me like a child. Which, to him, I suppose I am with being ten years younger than him. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Throw me to the sharks?" I question playfully. Finn laughs softly, placing a small kiss on the side of my head.

"Not just yet, Feather. Not just yet." I smiled at my little nickname he had given me when I was younger and unable to pronounce my name properly. I had greeted him as fefver rather than Heather. From that moment on I was his little feather. According to him I was delicate and flew in the wind, just like one too.

"I don't know if I can stay there much longer, Finn. They're getting more frequent and more violent each week. Haymitch seems to think there has been some sort of reversal trigger. He may have to go back to the Capitol for treatment again."

"Don't worry about that now," he replies so low I barely hear him. "Things will work out. Maybe it's because the anniversary is coming up again soon?" I nod, feeling this is a plausible explanation. He always seems to get worse around the anniversary of the war, especially during the big one because the Capitol decides to host a big party that they are all required to attend as the front men of the war. Mum spends her days laid in bed, often crying and being unable to leave the house, dad stays with her because he knows she needs him and any small thing that goes wrong sets him off. Particularly pain and blood, especially when mum is around. The three are never a good combination. Whilst he has never hurt me or Nix, mum has had to put herself between us sometimes and talk him down. Usually it's over in a matter of seconds where he has to grip the back of the chair or dig his nails into his skin to fight to stay in control. But sometimes, just sometimes, he loses it altogether. Like tonight.

I feel myself being lifted up as Finn takes us up the stairs and to his room. When we used to vacation in four to help Annie out Finn would always look after me when my parents were having particularly bad days, and I used to hang around him when his mother was having a bad moment and he felt he couldn't handle it by himself. We stopped coming here almost four years ago now though. It's nice to see some things never change when he places me on his bed, exactly as I remembered it, and takes my shoes off for me before covering me with the blanket. "Finn, please don't leave," I whisper, just as I used to do as a child. Shaking his head he smiles softly at me before going to his drawers and handing me his t-shirt to sleep in before turning around to give me some privacy. Once I was done he crawled into bed beside me and we fell asleep, finding a small comfort in each other's arms.

[x][x][x]

When I awoke the next morning I didn't want to leave my little cocoon of safety. Finn had always been safe to me. We had been friends longer than I remember and we understood each other perfectly. Not only as children with problem parents but as children with an enormous amount of pressure on them to be exactly like their parents. Personally, I think Finn played his part rather well. He was known as the playboy of the victors' children. It was an unwritten rule that he never copulated with other victors' children but he did enjoy the rest of the district's population quite well. I knew why though; he didn't want to end up depressed like his mother when she lost the love of her life. His solution to that was to never find love. I fulfilled somewhat of my expectation. I was kind and gentle like my father and I loved to draw like he did, but I looked like my mother, right down to the braid in my hair.

"What are you thinking about?" Finn whispered in my ear, running his hand through my hair.

I shrugged in response not wanting to bring up my family again. "I'm sorry for coming here so late last night. I should have called or something, it was stupid."

"You're lucky I was even here and not with...what's her name? Fliss? No wait that's not right..." I laugh softly at him. I love that he takes his bachelor life as a joke. He doesn't feel any pressure to settle down with anyone, he just goes with the flow. I lay my head on his chest, right above his heartbeat listening to the quick even pace of it, feeling it calm me down once again. "As much as I loved your impromptu visit, Heather, you're going to have to go home and face your parents. They sounded really worried about you last night."

Fighting the urge to shrug I opted instead for a sigh. "What if I don't want to go home?" I asked. It was something I had been thinking about for a long time now. I graduated school, the only thing I wanted to do was sketch and I could do that anywhere. But home was just too... suffocating for me now. "What if I wanted to stay here and draw? Just like I always talked about as a kid?"

"I think you'd have to talk to your parents about it. If you leave now your dad will think he drove you away. You gotta wait it out, Feather." I sighed knowing he was right. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt my dad and think that he drove me away. I may sometimes be terrified at the thought of my parents mourning my leaving but I don't want them to feel that it's because of their episodes that I'm doing it. Even if it is part of the reason. "Look, go home today with Nix, it's your birthday in two weeks, I'll come and visit you then and you can talk to your parents about you leaving. I'll let them know I'll keep an eye on you and things will work out. Okay?" I nodded happily giving him a quick hug and jumping out of bed to get dressed and grab Nix some breakfast. It wasn't until the train ride home that I realised just how much I had missed being around Finn.


End file.
